Chapter 1612 — Harder Than Scaling the Heavens
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu strained every faculty to deduce the mysteries of the red rope's knot. The knot was immeasurably more complex than the dao patterns of Miluo Palace. The dao patterns of Miluo Palace employed dao patterns, but the red rope's knot employed dao chains composed of dao patterns.
Dao chains were far more complex than dao patterns, and their transformations were more numerous still, making his deductions doubly arduous.
"If I could master and employ this seal of the Miluo Palace Master, its power would be immeasurably greater than that of the Primordial Finger!"
When Shen Mu had first comprehended the dao patterns of Miluo Palace, he had failed to grasp the transformations within them, and so had awakened only the Primordial Finger. Yet even the Primordial Finger's power far surpassed the divine abilities of the Heavenly Venerates; its might could be called the foremost divine ability below the Dao-Achievers, and it posed a threat even to Dao-Achievers themselves!
If he could comprehend the red rope's knot, then this seal would become another great asset of his.
"If Ling Tianzun would impart to me the mysteries of the dao patterns she has comprehended over these years, perhaps it would be much simpler. A pity..."
He felt some regret. Forty thousand years he had waited, and Ling Tianzun had come at last, yet before he could exchange even a word with her, he had been seized and suppressed by Hao Tianzun.
The red rope's knot was, after all, a mighty seal capable of suppressing the Second Young Master of Miluo Palace. To deduce it in a short time was impossible, and the battle between the Empress and Yuanmu might end at any moment. He had to first make himself able to employ the red rope's knot.
"This is too hard!"
After who knew how long, Shen Mu let out a mournful sigh, lying flat on his back upon a red rope, swinging to and fro, his eyes vacant as he stared upward at the ceaselessly surging great calamity of destruction.
The difficulty of the red rope's knot exceeded his imagination. The dao chains composing the red rope shifted without cease, and within each dao chain were countless dao patterns, and these dao patterns too shifted without cease, with infinite transformations at every moment.
And within those dao patterns were hidden infinite transformations of the great dao's runes. The transformations of the Five Primals' runes alone were enough to consume a lifetime of wisdom to study!
These transformations traced back to the origin of the dao patterns, which was the Primordial Rune. From this single Primordial Rune evolved the Five Primals, as well as the transformations of all the great daos in the world.
But to speak of it was simple; to learn it was harder than hard.
The transformations were infinite. He could scarcely master all the transformations within the dao patterns, let alone the dao chains.
After a moment, Shen Mu sat up, seeming to reignite his confidence. The vertical eye at his brow opened, and with keen interest he continued studying the red rope's knot.
After another unknown stretch of time, his rekindled confidence was ground away once more. Wiping his tears, he murmured, "This is simply impossible to learn..."
He wept a while, rendered utterly despondent by the red rope's knot, looking as though he would leave life and death to fate.
"Man proposes, Heaven disposes!"
He scrambled up again, his eyes bright and piercing: "The Miluo Palace Master is a man, and I am a man too! He created the Primordial Rune, evolved the dao patterns of Miluo Palace, and then created the red rope's knot. He created it from nothing—one can well imagine how difficult that was. I am learning his dao arts, which is immeasurably simpler than his creating them from scratch. Surely I can learn it?"
He rallied his spirits once more and continued his study, attempting to evolve various transformations of dao patterns with his vital essence, striving to form the red rope.